Almost from its introduction, the World Health Organization’s definition of health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being”¹ was a matter of controversy,² because it implied a strong connection between health and general happiness. Less known, however, is that this definition was inspired by the description of the “healthy individual” penned by the medical historian Henry Sigerist in 1941: A healthy individual is a man who is well balanced bodily and mentally, and well adjusted to his physical and social environment. He is in full control of his physical and mental faculties and can adapt to environmental...
...MoreBook Joseph E. Davis; Ana Marta Gonzalez (2016) To Fix or To Heal: Patient Care, Public Health, and the Limits of Biomedicine.
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